The Cincinnati Bengals entered Week 17 hoping to end the regular season on a positive note after posting back-to-back impressive wins over the Cleveland Browns and San Diego Chargers over the last two games. While the Bengals arguably should have won, the offense surrendered too many turnovers that cost the Bengals a chance of ending the season on a three-game winning streak.The Ravens racked up their fourth-straight win after defeating the Bengals 13-7 on Sunday thanks to an impressive performance by the defense. Baltimore forced five turnovers (three from Carson Palmer and two from Jerome Simpson) and held Cincinnati scoreless until the beginning of the fourth quarter.

After displaying the best performance of his career against the San Diego Chargers in Week 16, Palmer struggled like he has for most of the season and arguably cost the Bengals another win. Both of his interceptions to Ed Reed should have never happened and his fumble in the fourth quarter was just embarrassing. The fact that Palmer lost control of the ball the way he did is the perfect example of what sets him apart from the top quarterbacks in the NFL.

Along with Palmer, Simpson’s fumbles were just as disappointing and ended up being costly. If he has any chance of being an effective part of the passing game next season, Simpson needs to realize part of being a wide receiver in the NFL is holding on to the ball. In both cases, Simpson failed to tuck the ball in his arm after making the catch–which the Ravens managed to take advantage of.

Turnovers have been a problem for the Bengals all year and Sunday’s game against the Ravens may have been the worst one of the season. While this season may not have turned out the way Cincinnati thought it would, a win over Baltimore would have been a nice way to end this disappointing season. Unfortunately, teams that turn the ball over five times rarely come up on the winning end–which is why the Bengals lost on Sunday.

Dan Parzych is the Lead NFL Content Editor for RantSports.com/NFL, where he writes and edits NFL content for RantSports.com.

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